Formalizing Material Flow DiagramsHow can an MDE approach be used to improve the design process of material handling systems?

Robert-Jan Bijl

Contents

• The FALCON Project• Problem Statement• Model Driven Engineering• Incorporating MFDs in MDE• Stepwise metamodel design• Tools and Transformations for Formal MFDs• Conclusion

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The FALCON project

• FALCON: Flexible Automated Logistics CONcepts

• ‘Warehouse of the future’

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Problem Statement

• How can an MDE approach be used to formalize Material Flow Diagrams, such that their role in the design process of material handling systems can be expanded?

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Model Driven Engineering

• Software Engineering discipline in which models play a central role throughout the entire development process.

• Domain Specific Languages• Used to describe the structure of the models

• Transformation Engines• Used for synthesizing the models

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Object

Meta-metamodel

Metamodel

Model

conforms to

conforms to

modeled by

conforms to

M3

M2

M0

M1

ControllerController BrewerBrewer

SelectBlend

SelectQuantity

MakeCoffee(Recipe, int)

Lifeline

Name

Lifeline

Name

ActorActor ObjectObject

Message

NameArguments

Message

NameArguments

source

target

*1

*1

Class

Name

Class

Name

Association

NameMultiplicity

Association

NameMultiplicity

isparentof

Attribute

NameType

Attribute

NameType

1 *

1

*

1

*

Model Driven Engineering

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Material Flow Diagram

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Problem Statement / Project Goals

• How can an MDE approach be used to formalize Material Flow Diagrams, such that their role in the design process of material handling systems can be expanded?

• Get insight in the involved processes• design of metamodels

• evolution of metamodels (when already in use)

• creation/availability of tooling

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General Approach

• Domain analysis

• Construction of a metamodel

• Construction of a graphical editor

• Construction of transformations/code generators

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Domain Analysis

• Entities• Processing Units

• Transport Units

• Operators

• Floors

• Blocks

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Material Flow Diagram

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Domain Analysis

• Entities• Processing Units

• Transport Units

• Operators

• Floors

• Blocks

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First metamodel attempt

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Domain Analysis

• Level of abstraction• Hierarchy• Connections and connectors

• Create model element per connection

• Can be used for e.g. computing metrics

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Metamodel fragments

• Hierarchy• Connectors• Connections

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Libraries

• Addressing an even more specific domain• One library per sub-domain

• Keeps libraries small and clear

• New concepts• Abstract Metamodel

• Libraries

• Concrete Metamodel

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Create Metamodel

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Implement Metamodel

• We use the Eclipse Modeling Framework• Eclipse based framework for Model Driven Engineering

• Consists of several plug-ins, to• create (meta)models

• perform Model-to-Model transformations (ATL)

• do code generation (Xpand)

• create graphical editor (GMF)

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Implement Metamodel (cnt’d)

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Create Graphical Editor

• Compared a few available tools

• Based on five metrics

• Results:

• Decided to go with GMF, best compatibility with what we already have

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Graphical Editor (cnt’d)

• Created a (basic) graphical editor for the metamodel we saw a few slides back

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Transformations and generators

• Used to actually do something with the created models

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Meta-metamodel

Metamodel

Model

Object

conforms to

conforms to

modeled by

conforms to

M3

M2

M0

M1

Transformations

• Transforming a model conforming to metamodel A to a model conforming the metamodel B

• Atlas Transformation Language, ATL

rule createRoot{

from

a : MFDMeta!MFD

to

p : PlannerMeta!Planner(

PId <- 'P' + a.Mid,

PName <- 'Planner' + a.MName

)

}

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Code Generation

• From a formal model we can generate all sorts of artifacts, e.g. source code

• Using ‘Xpand’, a statically-typed template language, part of the Eclipse M2T-project«DEFINE main FOR Planner»

«LET removeSpace(PName) AS name»

«FILE name + “.dot”»

digraph «name» {

«EXPAND createNode FOR firstNode()»

«EXPAND createNodeLinks FOR firstNode()»

}

«ENDFILE»

«ENDLET»

«ENDDEFINE»

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Practical Application (1)

• Generation of a framework for High-Level Controller software• Using the hierarchy structure of the MFD

• Unfortunately, no implementation available• Have to settle for description of the structure

• Overview images

• Framework for source code

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Practical Application (1)

Transformation +Generator

Formalization

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Practical Application (2)

• Warehouse Simulator• Created by Jacques Verriet of ESI

• Simulates throughput, latency

• Generate input, based on an MFD-model• Not a 100% mapping

• Nice example of what might be possible

• Combination of Java and Xpand• Read editor files to create an layout model

• Traverse model to generate simulator input

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Practical Application (2)

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Conclusions

• Managed to formalize MFDs though an MDE approach

• Introduced a Library structure to distinguish between subdomains

• Have working tools to create and edit MFDs• Connected to running projects within VI

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Future Work

• Automatic generation of the graphical editor• Automatic generation of a test suite• Combining the topology provided by an MFD with

(known) behavior of the individual parts, to create one big behavioral model for a transport system

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Final Presentation

• Tuesday, April 13th, 10.00h• HG 6.29

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